Shari Shallard
Reconstructing Theo - Literary Fiction
Represented by 2022 judge Honor Spreckley from RCW Literary Agency
I’m an American who grew up in Northern Virginia just outside Washington, DC. When I was at university (in Florida), I took a summer Shakespeare course in London and discovered how much I loved England. I returned to the UK a couple of years later for a postgrad degree at gorgeous University of York. There, I met a very cute Brit in the kitchen of my shared house and . . . fast forward 22 years and several moves crisscrossing the Atlantic . . . I now live in Cheshire with that cute Brit and our three children (only one of whom is still shorter than me). For my day job, I’m a freelance editor and writer. The rest of the time, I love the essentials – family, coffee, books – as well as hiking, comedy, traveling, brownies, jogging (when nothing hurts), gnocchi, and spending time with people I love. I’m also impatiently awaiting the second season of Severance.
What made you enter the Cheshire Novel Prize?
After working on it for a looooong time, I finished RECONSTRUCTING THEO during the lockdown. I then spent a couple of months querying, but I got little response and decided to put the manuscript aside for a little bit and start working on something else. Then, one day on my favourite podcast – The Shit No One Tells You About Writing – I heard guest author Julie Carrick Dalton talk about the value in entering contests that provide feedback. I tucked that idea into the back of my mind and when I saw the Cheshire Novel Prize announced, I thought: This is it! I can finally find out why nobody wants to read past my first five pages!
What did it feel like when you were LL and then SL?
Incredible. So, so unexpected. Tears and disbelief both times. With the shortlist, Sara had been talking for a good minute or so before I realised it wasn’t a consolation phone call.
What was the reaction from those around you/family and friends?
By chance, I was visiting my parents in Florida, sitting at their kitchen table, when I learned I’d made the longlist. My mom has always been my first reader; the poor woman has trudged through my entire manuscript at its longest, most unedited form. So I was thrilled to share that moment with her. My dad is more of my cheerleader than my reader, so he gave the super-proud-father applause and celebratory sounds even though he didn’t really understand what my mom and I were getting all giddy about.
You were unrepresented when you entered the Cheshire Novel Prize, can you say what’s happened since?
Oh gosh, it’s been amazing. January 2021 me would have never dreamed that August 2022 would look like it did. I had full requests from several agents who I think the world of, which was thrilling beyond words, but I decided early on to accept an offer from an agent who’d had a head start on reading THEO and was already ready to jump in – Honor Spreckley of RCW Agency. As most people reading this probably know, Honor was on the judging panel for Cheshire Novel Prize, and signing with her was this perfect ending to what’s been the greatest experience. It’s funny to look at photos from the prize luncheon; I was standing next to my future agent and didn’t know it!
How did you come up with the idea for your book?
First, I’m a little obsessed with the word “Sonder” from The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig. The whole definition is beautiful, but it starts as, “the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own – populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness…” I’ve been consumed with that feeling my whole life and have always attempted to capture it in my writing, but Koenig put these perfect words to it.
Also, many years ago I wrote a short story about an enigmatic elderly man forming a strange bond with the young checkout-girl at the grocery store. The story is verrry different from THEO but some of the themes I was exploring there – strange things a person might do at the end of their life, all the secrets and complexities each human holds – stuck with me.
I think THEO is me taking a decade to weave these ideas together.
What’s it about?
Six adults – mostly strangers to each other – have received invitations from a dying man they haven't seen in decades. I think I’ll stop there …
What’s your writing routine?
It varies but usually involves pens and notebooks, many cups of coffee, a lot of staring and talking about how much I love to write. Sometimes there’s writing.
What’s next for you?
Great question – I can’t wait to find out! I’m sure there’s plenty more work to do on Theo, which I’m so looking forward to. It’s a dream come true to have someone to collaborate with in this next phase.
I also have a new story I started working on last year, which I’m very excited about. I nudged it to the backburner when the longlist was announced and my focus moved to tidying up THEO. But I still chip away at it when I can and look forward to diving back in when the time is right.
What are your favourite books and why?
I feel I can’t know if a book is a favourite until some time has passed, so I’m only listing books that go back a bit (some quite a bit). Here are a few that still tug at me when I think about them: Beartown, The Interestings, Middlesex (tied w/ Eugenides’ Virgin Suicides), Wild Swans, Love in the Time of Cholera, The Goldfinch, Into Thin Air, Kindred, Hearts in Atlantis, The Time Traveler’s Wife, Cider House Rules, and Station Eleven. I just have to stop typing – there are so many I want to list here. Why are they favourites? I know I adored the stories and language and characters – but they stand out for the sense of place I experienced while reading them. Each was so immersive and visceral. In fact, I remember the standing in a hotel room and closing Station Eleven when I finished it and just being so gentle, like I didn’t want to disturb anybody inside that precious world.
Any tips for writers intending on entering the competition?
Just do it! Even if I never made it past round one, there’s been so much energy and encouragement and advice and interaction from all those involved in CNP. It’s a fantastic experience that will re-ignite your writing life.
Excerpt
RECONSTRUCTING THEO - Literary Fiction
The first letter to arrive was addressed to Marian Winkle of Winsdale, Connecticut.
Marian’s letter never saw a post office because the postman made the strangely satisfying decision to let it ride on his dashboard for the 3.2 miles that stretched from the sender at Hyacinth Court to its recipient on Birch Avenue. There, he set the envelope with its unprocessed stamp into a faded black mailbox.
The Winkles had been away since Sunday and would not return for a few more days, so it was Lisa Turnkey, commonly referred to by the Winkles as ‘the girl across the street,’ who removed the envelope and added it to the small pond of letters and rolled newspapers on the couple’s kitchen table.
Lisa was being paid twenty dollars to bring in mail, water plants and turn on and off lights for an hour or so after dark. She took her job seriously and had choreographed an elaborate routine for the lights, conceived only after giving careful consideration to how a married couple – who were at that age where they might have young kids but didn’t, and who always smiled and waved when you saw them outside, and who arrived home from work every evening at nearly the exact same time in matching black Accords – would spend an average evening.
It started just inside the front door:
The tall and slim Mrs Winkle walks in, shaking her big dark curls and unbuttoning one of her cute jackets. The hallway recessed lights go on. Mr Winkle, just a touch shorter and wearing his khaki trousers, comes in the side door from the garage. (Lisa darted across the house for this.) The blue Ikea sitting room lamp goes on. They kiss hello where the hallway meets the sitting room. (Lisa stood very still for this.) He sets down the big realtor car-magnet that features his tanned smiling face; she moves to the kitchen, ignoring the sign because it embarrasses her a little. The pendant light over the island goes on. Mrs Winkle starts the kettle while Mr Winkle runs upstairs to use the toilet. (Lisa took the steps two at a time for this.) The row of round bulbs over the bathroom mirror goes on. (Lisa mimed a flush and a hand wash.) The row of round bulbs goes off again. Mrs Winkle appears from downstairs, two cups of tea in hand, leaving every light burning behind her.
Lisa had nearly half an hour of this, but some nights she simply turned on all the lights she could find and watched the Winkles’ biggest television for a while.
*
When the Winkles pulled into the driveway Saturday morning, Brian Winkle went straight to the kitchen and, despite it being barely eight-thirty, poured himself and his wife two short
glasses of Coke. They both preferred their soda room temperature, almost never with ice. Neither was a fan of coffee or tea.
They sat at opposite sides of the scratched-up oak table and Brian began unrolling newspapers, plucking the sports section from each one. Marian didn't have to sift through the mail for more than a few seconds before she noticed the neat handwritten words on the unprocessed envelope.